•  
  •  
 

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of genes encoding staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs), exfoliative toxins (ETAs, ETBs), and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from various clinical samples from the Mustafa Kemal University Hospital. In addition, PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the coa gene was employed to genotype the isolates. Materials and methods: A total of 120 S. aureus strains isolated from various clinical samples (blood, wounds, urine, conjuctival swabs, and tracheal aspirate) over a 1 year period, 2007-2008, were used in this study. Results: Almost 65.8% of the isolates possessed at least one toxin gene. The genes most frequently found were seg-sei (40.8%), followed by sea (30%) and eta (19.2%). Overall, 35 toxin genotypes were observed, among which the genotypes seg-sei, sea-seg-sei, and sea-see predominated at the rate of 8.3%, 5.8%, and 5%, respectively. Four coagulase genotype patterns were observed, with molecular sizes ranging from 570 to 970 bp. Coa-based RFLP analysis revealed 7 different patterns using AluI. Conclusion: Our results have revealed that toxin genes were very prevalent among S. aureus isolates, and the toxigenic isolates were independent of the genotypes obtained by PCR-RFLP of the coa gene (P > 0.05).

DOI

10.3906/sag-1003-657

Keywords

Staphylococcus aureus, toxin genes, PCR-RFLP, coagulase

First Page

343

Last Page

352

Download

Share

COinS